Josh Hazlewood bowled Australia to a 214-run victory on day five with a career-best six-wicket haul as South Africa’s tail fell like a deck of cards in the first Test in Durban.
The Proteas’ were bowled out for 206 with Hazlewood snaring 6/49 as he and Mitchell Starc combined with the second new ball to take the final four wickets for just five runs.
Watch Australia’s Tour of South Africa Live & Exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports. Second Test begins October 18 in Gqeberha.
The commanding performance with the ball followed Matt Renshaw’s man of the match performance with a game-changing first innings 190, followed by 82 in the second innings and two crucial wickets in the fourth innings.
South African opener Aiden Markram (75 off 237) fought valiantly, but lacked support as Australia charged towards a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
MATCH CENTRE: Live scores from the first Test
“Great performance, lot built on Renshaw’s performance on Day 1. We managed to clinch and hold onto the lead from there,” Australian captain Pat Cummins said.
“Everywhere I look, there’s Test wickets. The two quicks and Lyno always get to work, makes my life easy. I haven’t played a lot of Tests in 18 months and that felt as good as I could.
“Felt I could bowl more overs when needed. It’s nice being 1-0 up, better than the alternative. Playing away is hard, getting the win and confidence is good.
“Hazlewood is known for being consistent but that undersells him as he can reverse the ball, get the pace up, bowl anywhere; he’s the captain’s dream.”
Markram was the second last wicket to fall, after an inside edge off Starc sailed through to wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who took an impressive catch down low and smartly convinced Cummins to review.
Markram was also the third wicket to fall as South Africa lost 3/0 with the end coming in a hurry.
Cummins delayed the inevitable after lunch as Australia waited for the second new ball by turning to part-time tweakers Renshaw, Beau Webster and Nic Maddinson – remarkably a record six Australians bowled spin across the Test match, including Nathan Lyon, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne.
Once Hazlewood and Starc had the new Kookaburra in hand, it was time to put the foot down.
“It was a tough slog, really. That first session, they dug deep. Markram’s a classy player,” Hazlewood said.
“He was tough to dislodge, but I think we just had to stick at it. We knew the new ball was around the corner after lunch and it was going to do a few tricks on a deteriorating wicket.”
Markram and Marco Jansen (35) had combined well for a 45-run stand but Hazlewood ended their resistance with a beauty that nipped back and crashed into the top of middle stump to send the towering fast bowler on his way.
Simon Harmer was gone for a third-ball duck later that over as Hazlewood got a delivery to rear off a length and fly a catch through to Carey above his head.
Hazlewood said post-match that there were some cracks from his end he was able to target, he said: “I was lucky to get one to shoot and one to jump”.
After Starc dismissed Markram, it was fitting that Hazlewood had the honour of finishing the job as No.11 Anrich Nortje spooned a short ball to Nathan Lyon in the leg side.
World Test Championship final player of the match Markram has been a thorn in Australia’s side in the past and offered stubborn resistance once again for much of the day.
The right-hander has scored three fourth innings tons in his career and two of them have been against Australia – at Lord’s last year and at Durban in 2018.
Markram, whose fifty was his second slowest in Test cricket having come from 129 balls, had set about pulling off the impossible but Australia’s bowlers were too classy.
There had not been a draw in a Test match in South Africa since 2016 and the match looked like it might stretch to late in the day.
The procession began before lunch when Hazlewood removed Wiaan Mulder (29 off 110), who as stand-in captain famously declared and denied himself a shot at Brian Lara’s world record when 367 not out against Zimbabwe last year.
The all-rounder was a touch unlucky as he was strangled down the leg side and well caught by diving wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
Australia used the opening to go bang, bang as Renshaw removed Carey’s counterpart Kyle Verreynne (1) thanks to nice low catch at slip from Steve Smith – who returned to the field this morning after being cleared of concussion.
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“That first hour-and-a-half, really, Mulder and Markram played well,” Australian great Mark Waugh said on Kayo Sports at the lunch break.
“There was a couple of half chances, but with that ball being a bit soft, they had time to play the spinners off the back foot.
“There’s a bit of reverse swing there, which they counteracted really well.
“But it’s just discipline from Markram, a mould for quite a while there.
“But you just feel the new ball; it could break open pretty quickly.”
Waugh’s assessment was spot as South Africa’s tail failed to dig in like both sides managed to in their respective first innings.
It was an energy sapping Test match with Renshaw saying he was “pretty tired” after barely spending any time off the field across the five days.
“Been a while since I played a five-day Test,” he said upon accepting his player of the match award.
“Wanted to stay out as long as I could on Day 1. Build partnerships with bowlers, had good allies, and play as many balls as possible. The conditions and fields against me it was hard to pick twos, so had to go for boundaries at times.
“Got lucky in the second innings, got edges away. Nice to bat at 5, different from opening, happy to do whatever’s asked.
“Nice to hit the pitch with the ball after lobbing a few full tosses. Hopefully a few phone calls with the family.”
The second Test in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) begins on Sunday and South African captain Temba Bavuma is determined to fight back after his first Test loss as Proteas skipper.
“Not the way you want to start. Got to give it to Australia. Dominated most of the game, even from 124 for 6,” he said.
“We don’t want to give them the opportunity to get back. We’ll need to have conversations. Guys have to go big in the first innings for us, like Renshaw did for them. Number of guys got in in the first innings, couldn’t go big. Their bowling was proactive and we’ll learn from how they played.”
Live updates from Day 5 of the First Test below — if you can’t see the blog, tap here
Match Details
Venue: Kingsmead, Durban
First ball: 6:30pm (AEDT)
Watch it live: On Fox Cricket (channel 501), and streaming on Kayo, from 5:30pm (AEDT)
Teams
Australia: Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matt Renshaw, Alex Carey (wk), Beau Webster, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
South Africa: Aiden Markram, Ryan Rickelton, David Bedingham, Temba Bavuma (c), Tristan Stubbs, Wiaan Mulder, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje.
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